About

ETH501

Briefly describe the Adelphia Communications scandal.Adelphia is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Adelphia owns, operates, and manages cable television systems and other related telecommunications businesses. Adelphia issues Class A shares of common stock, which are registered with the Commission pursuant to of the Exchange Act, and Class B shares of common stock, which have ten times the voting power of Class A shares and which have been held almost exclusively, directly or indirectly, by J. Riga’s or members of his family. Thompson, L. M. Jr. (2005). Shares of Adelphia's Class A stock were listed on NASDAQ until June 3, 2002. Adelphia filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on June 25, 2002. In March 2002, Adelphia's Board of Directors appointed a Special Committee to investigate business relationships between Adelphia and affiliates of the Riga’s family. Thompson, L. M. Jr. (2005). J. Riga’s is 77 years old and resides in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. He was Adelphia's founder and until May 15, 2002, were its CEO and Chairman of its Board. J. Riga’s and members of his immediate family held five of Adelphia's nine Board of Director positions, and exercised voting control of Adelphia shares. On May 15, 2002, J. Riga’s resigned from his position as CEO and Chairman of Adelphia, May 23, 2002, resigned his position as a director of Adelphia, pursuant to a request by the Special Committee. Thompson, L. M. Jr. (2005). Identify and discuss two key ethical problems raised by the Adelphia Communications case. Main Key ethical problems raised by the Adelphia Communications case: During the period of the conduct alleged, Adelphia and the Riga’s , including those that are in businesses unrelated to cable systems, participated jointly in a cash management system operated by Adelphia . Thompson, L. M. Jr. (2005). Adelphia, its subsidiaries, and the Riga’s Entities all deposited all of their cash...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...﻿
For this case study we are asked to draw upon deontological ethics, and discuss how Adelphia Communications’ executives violated the trust of the company’s shareholders and the trust of that of the larger public. To do this we first need to take a look at deontological ethics and how the philosophy of deontological ethics affects the choices that were made in the Adelphia Communications’ case. We will also look at the Adelphia case and examine how its executives violated the trust of the company’s shareholders and that of the public.
So what is the philosophy of deontological ethics? Theories in this category address the question of what makes one’s actions right and another’s wrong irrespective of the consequences of the action. It emphasizes what is the right thing to do rather than what is the good thing to do. The term deontological derives from the Ancient Greek word for “duty” which neatly encapsulates this approach. So the premise of this theory seeks to justify our obligation to behave in some ways and not in others. Further more the essence of deontological ethics is that an action’s moral value is independent of its consequences. An actions moral value depends on whether the motivation was to ones duty. (Duska and Duska 2003). According to this theory, there is only one possible action, the fair thing to do. Which means that all of us have the duty to take the right action.
Did...

...Unethical Behavior or Not!
Introduction:
Organizations are all comprised of what makes them who they are; the people. People are all comprised of different make-ups and people are what make businesses what they are which brings me to the point of this discussion; Unethical behavior within organizations.
Unethical behavior within organizations has been occurring for centuries and it is what led to their ultimate demise. Unethical behavior is the beginning of the end in some companies and in some of those it results in the ruin of what started out to be a good thing.
Some of these companies started out as small prosperous businesses that later grew into large dominate organizations for example; Enron, and of course WorldCom. These businesses began with good intentions and ended up internally combusting. All of it was due to the result of GREED. Greed is a disease, and has plagued several organizational leaders over time and caused them to go against their good ethics and morals.
There are many opinions as to why people commit the acts that they do but the bottom line is that money will sometimes bring out the evil in the best of people and Leaders of Corporate America are not immune.
Background:
The beginning phases of WorldCom began in 1983 with a plan to create a long distance telephone carrier service named (Long Distance Discount Service) Mr. Ebbers was one of the major investor’s and later became the CEO. Like most businesses this one was no...

...Trident University
Bruce W. Johns
Module 1 Case Assignment
ETH501 - Business Ethics
Dr. Shondria Woods
July 29, 2011
Should Bank of America refuse to process payments and do business with WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks a company of mystery and without scruples that will release information on
anyone or anything that it thinks it may be able to discredit. In my belief ethics upon both
WikiLeaks and Bank of America are scarred and will lead both to doing things that are unethical
and could be illegal. Bank of America is one of our nation’s largest banks that has throughout its
history has conducted business in almost every country and with many governments including
our own; has been given the opportunity to receive and gain information that could bring down
the economy of the United States and lead to a financial meltdown of the U.S. and the world. So
processing payments in support of a web based information mill such as WikiLeaks by these
large banks could complete the ethical dilemma that the US and many large banks are being
ethically challenged.
With ethical challenges being evaluated and the amount of people and the organizations
that are involved if such a leak should happen will cause devastation upon many companies and
individuals that could lead to the meltdown of trust for our banking system. I think that if we
take a true ethical evaluation of the circumstances that we will find that both entities have...